Generally, display cartons for holding glassware and other articles are well known in the prior art. Most of these standard cartons are formed by making a series of folds to a paperboard blank to form a hollow interior and fixed, internal supporting retainers for holding the articles. Although the outer surfaces of these cartons often have pictures, such as photographs of the articles, along with the printed advertising material relating to the articles, the prospective purchaser has no way of direct inspection of the actual articles without opening the carton.
In some instances, a transparent sheet is used to cover an opening on one side of the carton, in which case the articles can be partially seen, but not touched. Retailers usually prohibit a potential customer from opening these cartons, since part of the closure flaps will be mutilated, thus leaving the impression for the next customer that tampering with the contents has occurred.
To attempt to overcome this shortcoming, some carton designers propose cutout openings that allow the articles to be both partially viewed and touched inside of the carton. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,579,990 to Durand, cutout openings located at opposing corners of the glassware carton allow for the partial visual and tactile inspection of some of the glasses. In addition to providing a partial view of the article, the borders surrounding the cutout opening generally function as retaining walls for assisting in securing the article in the carton. However, these retaining walls also prevent a prospective purchaser from obtaining a good view of the complete article without removing it from the carton.
In addition to the retaining wall surrounding the cutout opening, the inside of the display carton has the usual fixed retainer to further assist in holding the article in the carton. Although these retainers advantageously prevent the articles from shifting during transportation, as well as during stocking and display on the retailer's shelves, the retainer has the undesirable limitation of preventing easy access for full visual/tactile inspection of the article. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,276 to Lebowitz, a fixed retainer extends over the top of the article, and thus greatly obstructs a useful inspection of the article in the carton. This retainer is clearly designed to also prevent the article from being easily removed, fully inspected, and returned to the carton.
Some leading inventors in the field of glassware cartons have gone so far as to try to solve the problem by designing simply a glassware carrier, which design leaves more than half of the glasses fully exposed; see for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,846 to Durand. As is obvious, this design is even more problematical since the glassware is very susceptible to being easily broken during handling of the carrier.
Therefore, a need is identified for an improved display carton having a cutout opening for viewing and touching an article contained within a carton, and at the same time providing full protection during handling. The carton should provide for a simulated appearance of the article that includes at least a substantial portion of the article itself being available for visual and tactile inspection. The prospective purchaser should have the impression that a full view of an article contained within the carton is provided. Furthermore, the carton needs to be adapted to allow the purchaser to easily remove the article from the carton, fully inspect the article while protecting the article, and then easily return the article to the carton. In addition, this access and inspection must be able to be accomplished without damaging the carton.